This book highlights and examines the role of the textbook in legitimising established political and social orders. It analyses the way in which the 'other' is presented in school textbooks, focusing on a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and argues that the role of textbooks in developing and maintaining a national identity should be afforded greater critical attention. Textbooks can help form national identities by developing a society's collective memory; this might involve a historical narrative which may be self-contradictory or even fabricated to a certain extent, including myths, symbols and collective memories that divide "us" from "them", and ultimately resulting a dichotomy between the Self and the Other. As well as addressing a range of theoretical questions relating to the study of textbooks generally, the volume also covers a broad spectrum of Middle Eastern states and societies, with contributions from Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Cyprus, Lebanon, Iraq, Kurdistan, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel and Palestine. It will be essential reading for researchers and students working in the fields of Education, Sociology and History, particularly those with an interest in national identities in the MENA region.

Education in East Jerusalem gives a voice to the residents of East Jerusalem, addressing educational issues and revealing implicit layers in Israeli policy and attitude affecting the education system. In this close examination of school life under occupation, the book presents criticism of the system from within, and calls for teachers to prioritize pupils' needs. Uncovering a complex daily reality experienced in schools by principals, teachers and pupils, this book presents new findings, focusing on system-internal properties which manifest the macro effects inside the microsystem. The author draws on field studies and content analysis to show a need for educational action and suggest ample room for improvement. This study reveals that there is a significant relationship between the failures of the education system in East Jerusalem and the strategies implemented by the state, and outlines the responsibilities of the state. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and postgraduate students in the fields of educational policy, sociology of education, and Middle East studies.

Education in East Jerusalem gives a voice to the residents of East Jerusalem, addressing educational issues and revealing implicit layers in Israeli policy and attitude affecting the education system. In this close examination of school life under occupation, the book presents criticism of the system from within, and calls for teachers to prioritize pupils' needs. Uncovering a complex daily reality experienced in schools by principals, teachers and pupils, this book presents new findings, focusing on system-internal properties which manifest the macro effects inside the microsystem. The author draws on field studies and content analysis to show a need for educational action and suggest ample room for improvement. This study reveals that there is a significant relationship between the failures of the education system in East Jerusalem and the strategies implemented by the state, and outlines the responsibilities of the state. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and postgraduate students in the fields of educational policy, sociology of education, and Middle East studies.

The essays are very high quality, written by well-qualified researchers, and address a subject of high interest to those concerned with development/political issues related to the Middle East. They...make a significant contribution to the field of educational reform and development, identity construction and nation building. . Eleanor Doumato, Watson Institute, Brown University

This volume will prove a valuable contribution for scholars and policymakers interested in educational policy, curricular reform, historiography, and Arab World identities. . Nabil Al-Tikriti, University of Mary Washington

Education systems and textbooks in selected countries of the Middle East are increasingly the subject of debate. This volume presents and analyzes the major trends as well as the scope and the limits of education reform initiatives undertaken in recent years. In curricula and teaching materials, representations of the "Self" and the "Other" offer insights into the contemporary dynamics of identity politics. By building on a network of scholars working in various countries in the Middle East itself, this book aims to contribute to the evolution of a field of comparative education studies in this region.

Samira Alayan is Lecturer at the David Yellin College of Education, Jerusalem. Since 2006 she has been a Research Fellow at the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research, Germany. Her research focuses on education in conflict zones, especially in Israel/Palestine, including East Jerusalem, and on education reforms in the Arab Middle East.

Achim Rohde is a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Technical University, Berlin. From 2006 to 2010, he was a Research Fellow at the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research, Germany. He is the author of "State-Society Relations in Ba'thist Iraq: Facing Dictatorship" (Routledge, 2010) and co-editor of "Iraq Between Occupations: Perspectives from 1920 to the Present" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

Sarhan Dhouib was a Research Fellow at the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research, Germany in 2008-09, and is currently Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of Kassel University, Germany. He co-edited "Al-Islah at-Tarbawi fi-sh-Sharq al-Awsat" (with Samira Alayan and Achim Rohde, Dar al-Shurouq, 2010). He was editor of Volume 59 of "Concordia" about current Arabic-Islamic philosophy and laureate of the Goethe-Instituts Newcomer Award for Philosophy in 2011."

This book highlights and examines the role of the textbook in legitimising established political and social orders. It analyses the way in which the 'other' is presented in school textbooks, focusing on a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and argues that the role of textbooks in developing and maintaining a national identity should be afforded greater critical attention. Textbooks can help form national identities by developing a society's collective memory; this might involve a historical narrative which may be self-contradictory or even fabricated to a certain extent, including myths, symbols and collective memories that divide "us" from "them", and ultimately resulting a dichotomy between the Self and the Other. As well as addressing a range of theoretical questions relating to the study of textbooks generally, the volume also covers a broad spectrum of Middle Eastern states and societies, with contributions from Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Cyprus, Lebanon, Iraq, Kurdistan, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel and Palestine. It will be essential reading for researchers and students working in the fields of Education, Sociology and History, particularly those with an interest in national identities in the MENA region.